5 Struggles of a Student Athlete

Sure being an athlete at the collegiate level is cool, but student athletes deserve more credit than they deserve. First, let's watch a short clip about what Seattle Seahawks corner back, Richard Sherman thinks about the life as a student athlete.

Richard Sherman on being a student athlete

Being a previous student athlete, these are the top 5 obstacles that i encountered while being a student athlete at Tiffin University. There are certainly pros with being a student athlete and there is a great amount of cons that come with that.

My freshmen year was a stepping stone for learning how to manage my time, sleep, money, school work, and social life while being a full time student athlete. Graduating in 2014 was a huge relief in my life after the non stop schedule of playing football while maintaining a good GPA. If you were a previous student athlete, then you can relate.

5 struggles of a student athlete

1. Lack of time and social life-

Student athletes arguably have the toughest schedule to manage. A typical day in my life as a student athlete at Tiffin University consisted of the following:

6:30am: Weight lifting

7:30am: Breakfast

8:00am: Class

9:30am: Class

11:00am: Lunch

12:30pm: Class

2:30 pm: Film meetings

3:30 pm: Practice

6:00 pm: Dinner

7:00-9:00 pm- Study hall

Repeat & repeat & repeat... The majority of my day would go to practice, class, studying, while barely leaving time for a social life. At times I felt isolated as a student athlete because the only time I would see the actual students would be at night time when heading to my dorm room for sleep.

This time could be used to enjoy the college experience, making new friends in the cafe, enjoying sitting outside while waiting for the next class instead of a meeting. My first two years at Tiffin, I roomed with students who were just going to school. As I would stumble in my room from a long day of meetings, practice, and class, I'd walk in to see my roommate enjoying their free time doing what they wanted. They had time to sit in the lobby and meet new people, play video games, read books, or even have a job to have some money in your pockets.

Another thing I noticed is that some student athletes did not have the opportunity to go home during certain holidays or be home for their birthdays because they had a game or practice the next day. My freshmen year, I found myself homesick, living 4 hours away from home. Yet, I could not complain because some student athletes live in totally different countries than I did.

2. Keeping up with school work-

This is probably the hardest obstacle of being a student athlete. Those days when you finally get to your dorm room after a long day, you sit down to read over a assignment due tomorrow, to only fall asleep while reading it. Also many sport teams are constantly on the road where student athletes bring their homework and assignments along with them to do on the bus or hotel.

Practice can be draining and by the time you sit down for class, you're about ready for a 20 minute nap. I usually did not have time to shower before going to class, so you can image how funky I felt sitting next to a regular student who had time to get up and shower before class.

Student athletes also fall under certain grade guidelines. For example, if you played football and had any grades under a C, then you were most likely not eligible to play that week. On top of the extra study hall that will be assigned to you until those grades are brought back up.

3. Lack of rest-

This category falls under two situations. Playing a sport is always risky on the human body. Pushing your body to the limit can cause exhaustion and a distraction. Sleep is such an important aspect in life. Everyone needs sleep and if you are not forcing yourself to bed after a long day of sports, class, and studying, then you are in for an even longer day tomorrow.

There are plenty of times when I was asleep in the front row of class just because I was completed exhausted from the 7:00 am workout. My roommate would actually get bored during the day because he had no obligations.

4. No time for job, which means no money-

As shown earlier, my typical schedule was not able to let me experience the "student" lifestyle on a campus. It must be nice to be able to work on the side while going to school to put a few extra bucks in your pocket.

I found myself asking my family for a few bucks here and there because I did not have the time to work a job in with my busy schedule. How can we survive and eat off campus when we don't have any cash flow coming in? This lead to the huge debate about "should student athletes get paid to play sports at the college level" and i completely agree on this subject. I struggled to buy what i needed in college from books, food, school merchandise, and basic needs.